Marvel comics’ Johnny Blaze is returning to the big screen this month when Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance arrives on February 17th. Being comic book fans here at Shock, we thought now would be a good time to take a look at some other Marvel characters worthy of a cinematic interpretation that aren’t exactly “boy scouts.”

Inside, you’ll find a look at some of the other popular horror-themed Marvel characters we want to see in films and how they could be pulled off on the big screen.

Carnage

If you don’t know, Carnage’s origins lie in the fact that this symbiote’s host, Cletus Kasady, was a serial killer who shared a cell with Eddie Brock (Venom). Kasady killed a lot of people even before bonding with the alien organism.

Now, we saw how Venom turned out in Spider-Man 3, so we know how not to do a story like that on film. But since the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man is trying to be “dark,” why not take it all the way and have Spidey go up against an absolute psychopath in an upcoming sequel? It could be like Seven, but with Spider-Man trying to piece together these increasingly bizarre murders. With the Lizard, it is possible that the new flick could have it’s share of scary moments, but if Carnage was on the loose it would surely be the most legitimately scary superhero movie ever. Will we ever see this story on film Probably not. And if we do it will be a watered down and as PG as you can get. But when a supervillain writes his name in his own blood at every murder scene he commits you can’t do that story justice by turning it into ketchup.

Morbius

Continuing with the Spider-Man villain theme, we have this “living vampire.” Michael Morbius was once a chemist attempting to cure himself of a rare blood disease that went awry and gave him the similar functionality to that of a vampire.

In an era where we’re flooded with vampire films I’m not one to advocate another one, but what if it was a Spider-Man versus a vampire flick? Actually, that would probably be ridiculous, but considering the character went on to become a hero in his own series why not have a movie about Morbius himself with a film peppered with Easter eggs from other Marvel characters. You could easily cover the origin of Morbius and have him defeat a cross-dimensional cult in less than two hours and do it well. I could see a it having a similar feel to the Ghost Rider films, or better yet why not have Blade and Morbius get involved in fisticuffs in a Blade reboot?

Marvel Zombies

I will admit Marvel Studios would be shooting themselves in the foot by putting this film out there after the series of family-friendly adventures they’ve produced. But as a genre fan I want to see this so bad. All of the heroes that we’ve seen on the big screen…but eating each other and everyone else? What’s not to love?

If I had to pick a dream team I’d say get James Gunn to write the script because of his style of humor and gore lend themselves to this story. And get Matt Reeves to direct. I can see it now: A long shot sweeping in from the harbor of New York, we hear screams and when the camera gets close enough to notice we see Chris Evans as Captain America gnawing on some woman’s eyeballs. Wait, why can’t we have this movie again?

Dr. Strange

The only entry on this list that is likely to happen. With the success of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, why couldn’t a Dr. Strange flick be successful? That’s not to say just because something has magic in it means the audience will show up (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice made $65 million domestic, but $250 million worldwide).

A Dr. Strange flick lives and dies by the casting. It needs the perfect man to be in the titular role for it to work and for people to get interested. Viggo Mortensen? Liam Neeson? Edward Norton? All could make a good Sorcerer Supreme, but there also needs to be a great visionary behind the camera. Guillermo del Toro was attached at one point – he would have been a good fit, but he managed to let it slip through with the nine thousand other projects he has in his hands. It would be cool to see a Dr. Strange flick for a variety of reasons. The first would be the killer special effects. Between the spells cast by Strange himself and whatever villains he would be battling, you know this would be a dream for visuals. Also, a supernatural story from the people at Marvel Studios is something I’d like to see them handle. They managed to handle the “god” aspect of Thor rather tastefully, so I’d like to see their take on Strange’s magic. I also don’t think this movie should be as cheap as they were first saying. Only a $30 million budget? With the average Marvel flick costing $160 million, you can spare a few more dollars for the Doctor.

Midnight Sons

Like The Avengers, this movie would take a lot of preparation on Marvel’s part, but the pay-off would be worth it. Who’s on this team? Oh, just Ghost Rider, Blade, Dr. Strange, Morbius, Hannibal King and more. Here is how you could potentially make it work…

Step four: Bring them all together to tackle the Mother of Demons, Lilith (as they did when they came together in the comics) in a Midnight Sons film.

Akin to the build-up to The Avengers you could run into a few problems. The Avengers has to make you believe the worlds of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Hulk can plausibly come together. With the members of the Midnight Sons, I suppsed they all deal with demons or vampires, so meshing the worlds shouldn’t be a problem. The biggest challenge would be combining Dr. Strange’s world of magic with the in-your-face aggressive world of Blade. You don’t see very many horror-oriented action films (except for the Underworld/Resident Evil series), but this could be a new breed of both supehero and horror film. With a continent-spanning plot and several leads from various films fighting the ultimate villian, the scope of this movie could be huge, and I think people would be really excited to see it.

I would be thrilled beyond belief if everything on this list eventually became a film or was featured in a Marvel film, alas my dreams for the B and C-list Marvel movies is probably a ways off. Until then, I can continue to hope that Marvel will look over at us on the dark side and see that we like to be entertained, too.